market research questions to ask business owners

Small Business Trends

132 market research questions to ask.

Market research sounds so formal. Yet it doesn’t have to be. It can be part of your daily marketing activity if you adopt one of the best and easiest techniques: simply ask questions.

Asking market research questions can yield new insights to boost your marketing to the next level. One example of market research involves gathering competitive information to inform your new product and service development.

Another market research example involves creating clear pictures of your ideal customers — called customer personas –for precise targeting. Other market research examples involve gathering feedback from existing customers to measure customer satisfaction.

The key to success, however, is knowing which questions to ask. Below is a list of 132 market research questions to use as templates for your own questions. Use them to ask questions internally to your team, or ask prospects and clients directly.

Types of Market Research Questions

Market research questions.

A good way to start your market research is to size up and describe your target audience. Gather primary and secondary research to assess the following marketing parameters:

What is the size of our target market? How many potential customers are there?
Do we have a good set of customer personas developed, to understand ideal target customers?
Demographic questions: gender, age, ethnicity. Include annual income, education and marital status.
Firmographic questions: size, industry. Include annual revenues and other relevant factors.
Psychographic questions: habits, preferences, interests.
What key consumer trends do we see?
How do we identify new target segments? How do these new segments differ from those we already have?
Which neighborhoods and zip codes do we get most of our customers from today?
Which geographic locations are growing? Are the demographics of growth markets similar to those in which we already operate? If not, what should we change?
Is online commerce or online service delivery a growth opportunity? Are our competitors doing business online?
Can we find marketing partners to expand our reach?

Related: How to Conduct Market Research

Questions to Ask Customers

Use the following as survey questions, either post sale or as post-support surveys. Or use these market research questions to conduct a focus group, interview individual customers, or engage potential customers during the sales process.

Make it a point to include respondents who are less than thrilled with your customer service. You learn more than if you only talk with happy customers. Ask:

How did you hear about us?
What made you choose us?
What features do you like most about our product or service?
Is our product or service easy, fast, convenient to use?
What do you wish our product or service did that it does not today?
Are you aware that we offer _________?
Were our personnel courteous in all dealings?
Did we answer all your questions or solve your support problem?
Can we help you get started using our product or service?
Were you satisfied with our promptness and speed?
Would you be willing to tell friends, family or colleagues about us?
How do you rate your experience with us?
Would you buy from us again?
Why have you decided to leave us / not renew?
How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others on a scale of 1-10?
What is the primary reason for your score?
Can you describe a situation where our product/service exceeded your expectations?
What changes would most improve our product/service?
If you could change one thing about our product/service, what would it be?
How do our products/services fit into your daily life or routine?
What other products/services do you wish we offered?

Related: Tailoring Survey Questions for Your Industry and Best Practices for Surveys

Pricing and Value

The following are pricing research questions to ask. Small business owners and marketers may want to assign someone to do a competitive analysis, such as gathering data from competitor websites and putting it into a spreadsheet.

Doing research may also require you to gather information internally. For example, meet with Sales to discuss feedback they receive from possible customers.

You could also ask Customer Support to start tracking when customers give price as a reason to not renew. Here are sample market research questions about pricing:

Does our team have a compelling sales pitch based on value, not just price?
How do we create more value to justify our prices?
How can we position our product as “premium”?
What are our competitors charging? Are our prices higher, lower or about the same?
Are our prices allowing sufficient profit to stay in business?
How often do sales and support staff hear pricing objections? And how often do they overcome them?
Are we identifying enough people who can afford our products and services, or who want to pay what we ask for?
Can we more precisely target prospects by income, neighborhoods and other factors to isolate a target audience receptive to our price point?
In the case of B2B, are we targeting the right industries with needs and pain points we can solve?
Are we targeting the right job title? Does the target executive have sufficient budget authority?
How does our business model compare in our industry? Are we missing opportunities?
What kind of promotions are our competitors advertising? Bulk buys / annual subscriptions? Free gift with purchase? Discounts? Sales events?
How do our prices compare with the value you perceive from our products/services?
What pricing model do you find most appealing – subscription, one-time purchase, pay-per-use?
How sensitive are you to price changes in our products/services?
What discounts or promotions would encourage you to make a purchase?

Product or Service Questions

Ask yourself or your team these market research questions about your products and services:

Are our new products or services sufficiently unique compared with what already exists?
What exactly is our value proposition — the reason customers should choose us? How can we best convey our benefits?
How are customers currently solving the problem that our product addresses?
What products do competitors offer? How does our target market view these competitive offerings?
How do competitors deliver service? Does their process differ from our methods? Are there obvious advantages such as cost or time savings to gain if we adjust?
Customers have been asking for a certain service — do others in the market offer it? What do they charge?
What changes will customers likely want in the future that technology can provide?
How do we get feedback about our product, so we know what to improve, and what to highlight in sales and marketing messages?
What technology is available in the market to improve operational productivity or cut costs? What solutions are competitors or big corporations using?
When considering new product development, do we interview customers to test their interest level?
Are there any untapped market segments or niches where our products or services could be a perfect fit?
What are the potential challenges or barriers that customers face when using our products or services?
Have we conducted customer satisfaction surveys to gauge overall customer experience and identify areas for improvement?
Are there any complementary products or services that we could offer to enhance our customers’ experience?
How do customers perceive the quality and reliability of our products or services compared to competitors?
What are the specific pain points or needs that our products or services address, and how well are we communicating this to customers?
Have we explored partnerships or collaborations with other businesses to expand our product/service offerings?
Are there any emerging trends or technologies in the market that could disrupt our current products or services?
Have we analyzed customer feedback and complaints to identify recurring issues that require immediate attention?
What are the future trends and demands in our industry, and how can we proactively align our offerings with these trends?
What additional features would you like to see in our future products?
How can we improve the user experience of our product/service?
What would make you choose our product/service over a competitor’s?
Are there any aspects of our product/service that you find unnecessary or rarely use?

Related: How to Minimize Survey Fatigue

Online Visibility Questions

Online traffic is essential to most small businesses, even local businesses, to drive in-store traffic. Market research questions can assess your company’s online visibility. Get answers from your digital team:

How much website traffic do we receive compared with competitors? Check free tools like Alexa and SimilarWeb – while not exact they can compare relative levels of traffic.
How prominently do we appear in search engines like Google and Bing?
Do we appear in search engines for the queries our audience is searching for, using their words? Or do we need to invest in search engine optimization?
Which search queries actually send us website traffic? Check Google Search Console or another SEO tool.
How does our search visibility compare with competitors? A tool like SEMRush or Ahrefs can give this kind of advanced look.
Have we done a gap analysis and identified which keywords our competitors rank for? Do we have a content marketing plan to attract more visitors?
Have we claimed business listings like Google My Business and Bing Places, and completed them with engaging content such as photos?
How prominently do we show up in Google Maps, Apple Maps and Bing Maps?
Do we give visitors something to do on our website to engage them, such as fill out a lead gen form, read the blog, or schedule an appointment?
Are our website’s loading speed and performance optimized for a better user experience?
Do we have a mobile-friendly website that caters to the growing number of mobile users?
Are we utilizing social media platforms effectively to engage with our target audience?
Have we analyzed user behavior on our website through tools like Google Analytics to identify areas for improvement?
Are we actively monitoring and responding to online reviews and comments about our business?
Have we implemented effective link building strategies to improve our website’s authority and search rankings?
How do our online advertising efforts compare with competitors in terms of reach and conversion rates?
Are we using email marketing campaigns to nurture leads and maintain communication with our customers?
Have we explored influencer marketing as a way to expand our online reach and brand visibility?
Are we leveraging online customer feedback surveys to gather insights and improve our online presence?
What type of content would you like to see more of on our website?
How easy is it to navigate our website and find what you’re looking for?
Are there any online channels (social media, forums, etc.) where you feel we should have a presence?
How do you prefer to interact with us online – through email, live chat, social media, or other channels?

Related: How to Interpret Survey Results

Reputation Management

Customers today have extraordinary power to talk about a brand, and its products and services. Customers can choose dozens of social media sites or review sites like Yelp to share opinions.

A big part of market research today is to find out what customers think and say about your business (and also about your competitors). You want answers to the following market research questions:

Do we have negative reviews online?
Do we have any other type of reputation issue, such as poor word of mouth in our local community?
Are competitors spamming with fake reviews?
What can we learn from bad reviews?
Do we thank those who give positive reviews and referrals, or do we ignore them?
Do we address negative reviews or complaints by trying to make good or by correcting wrong facts?
Can we use an app such as GatherUp.com to make it easy for customers to leave reviews?
Does our website have compelling testimonials?
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear our brand name?
How would you describe our company to a friend or colleague?
Are there any misconceptions about our brand that you think we should address?
How do you perceive our efforts in responding to and resolving customer complaints or issues?

Messaging and Advertising

Assess your current marketing messages. Brands will want to know that their messaging supports their marketing goals. Make sure to also assess advertising to make sure it is in sync with goals and performing well:

Have we identified the milestones in the customer journey, and what customers looking for at each milestone? Are we addressing the milestones?
What emotions drive our customers’ buying decisions? Fear? Aspirational desire? Does our messaging align with these emotional needs?
What information sources do prospects rely on? TV, online digital, social media, radio, newspapers?
Which marketing and advertising channels have been our top performers?
Have we developed quality content to educate and persuade prospects?
What are the best advertising methods and media outlets to reach our prospects?
Are we using our advertising spend to precisely target our desired buyer, or is it spray and pray?
Where and how frequently do competitors advertise, and what messages do they use?
Do we have good assets such as display ads and landing pages to drive prospects to? How do they compare with competitors’ assets?
What social media channels does our target market use? Should we boost our presence on those channels?
What issues do our target buyers talk about on social media?
Do we use heat maps, A/B testing or other measurements to test content and calls to action?
Do our marketing messages align with the values and brand identity we want to convey to our target audience?
How do our marketing messages address common pain points or challenges faced by our customers?
Have we conducted focus groups or surveys to gather direct feedback on the effectiveness of our marketing messages?
Are there any cultural or regional considerations that could impact the resonance of our messaging with different segments of our target audience?
What unique selling points (USPs) do we emphasize in our advertising, and how well do they differentiate us from competitors?
Have we tested various advertising messages to identify which ones resonate best with our target audience?
Are we effectively utilizing storytelling techniques in our marketing messages to create emotional connections with our customers?
How do we track the success of our advertising campaigns in terms of reach, engagement, and conversions?
Have we analyzed customer journey data to identify potential gaps in our messaging at various touchpoints?
Are there any specific keywords or phrases that our target audience commonly uses, and how can we incorporate them into our messaging?
What messages in our advertising resonate with you the most?
Are there certain advertising channels where you feel our presence is lacking?
How do you usually respond to our advertising – visit our website, follow us on social media, make a purchase?
In your opinion, what could improve the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns?

Related: 9 Strategies to Get More Customer Feedback and When to Use Online Surveys .

These 132 questions and examples of market research should give you plenty to explore. Always come back to the most important question of all: what can we do better? Answering this one question can put your brand well on the way toward long term growth.

Image: Depositphotos.com

market research questions to ask business owners

99 Market Research Questions You Should Be Asking

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Asking the right market research questions at the right time can pay dividends. You wouldn’t buy a house without first researching the neighborhood – and it’s unlikely you’d take a job without doing your homework on your prospective employer. So why should starting a business be any different?

Whichever way you look at it, asking the right market research questions makes sense as a first step.

The five parts of market research: definition, methods, steps & tips, examples and importance & benefits.

Do you want to gain a foothold in the market? Get to grips with the competition? Start thinking like your target audience? Introduce a new product or mobile app?

Whatever your goal, market research will help you understand all aspects of your industry, brand, potential customers, and rivals – good market questions can make a world of difference.

Below, we’ll walk you through 99 questions to ask for market research to succeed in the digital world. We started out as a research intelligence tool , so we know our stuff when it comes to defining a market, mapping key players, marketing strategies , and understanding trends , and target audiences.

So read on for all the questions your market research strategy needs – and how Similarweb can help you answer them.

How to choose market research questions

The market research questions you pick will depend on where your business is in its lifecycle. As we’ll get to in a moment, there are a lot of market research questions – so how exactly do you choose?

Pre-start-up – If you’ve not launched a business yet, and are just cultivating an idea – you’ll want to start with some formal market research first. Then, ask more general market research questions, and some targeted at start-ups. This will help you determine if there’s a financially viable market, whether it has blockbuster prospects, or is better off left in the cutting room.

Early start-up – If you’ve just started out, you’ll want to reach out to your target market with survey questions to help you tailor your products and services to them.

Established – If you’ve been around a little longer – and already have a few current customers – you’ll want to learn more about how you can keep improving your customer experience.

Finally, you can look at questions to ask for market research that focus on competitor analysis. These aren’t limited to any particular stage of your business’s journey. After all, getting clued up on the competitive landscape is always handy – whether you’ve just entered the market or are one of its most established players.

A business person conducting market research, analyzing graphs and evaluating data.

99 market research questions: discover, define, drill down

There’s no need to limit yourself! The best types of market research should – and do – include general questions and those addressing both existing and prospective customers. Indeed, an intelligent approach to market research should cover demographic questions all the way to those that’ll help you plan a product launch , drill down into your target market , and get the jump on your competitors.

Read on to see the best examples of market research questions in action!

Generic market research questions

These questions are most useful at the planning stage. They can apply to all businesses at any stage because markets shift, along with consumer behaviors , needs, and demands.

General market research is the process of figuring out how rich the soil is and whether the conditions are optimal to allow your business’s roots to take hold.

Some general market research questions you should be asking include:

1. How large is my product’s total addressable market (TAM)? 2. Will this market hold firm, or will it grow or decrease with time? 3. Are there already similar products or services out there? 4. If so, who’s offering them? (see the competitor analysis questions below for more) 5. Who are my buyer personas ? 6. What pain points does my product address? 7. How much market share is available for my business to take? 8. What external factors might affect the health and viability of my chosen market? 9. Which website demographics will I target? 10. Will I market my product internationally or target a specific geographical location or a single location (if so, why?) 11. Do I need to consider a website alone, or should I invest in a mobile app? (use mobile app intelligence to help to figure this one out) 12. Which suppliers or manufacturers operate in the space, and are they reputable? 13. Which marketing channels will I prioritize, and which affiliates or advertisers could I look to in order to expand my reach?

Market research questions for start-ups

Regardless of your sector, there are key things you need to establish before setting up a business. Read on to discover the fifteen market research questions all start-ups need to ask.

14. What is the total addressable market (tam), serviceable available market (sam), and share of market (som)? 15. What are the latest (and predicted) trends impacting your market? 16. Do you know who your direct and indirect competitors are?

Read through questions 71-99 for examples of market research questions to help you with this.

17. What’s your USP in the market? What’s the value-add that’ll make you stand out? 18. What do your competitors charge, and will you charge the same, more, or less?

You’ll also need to consider pricing models. For instance, pay-monthly, annual subscription, or other?

19. Do you know how much people are willing to pay for a product/service like yours? 20. Can you trial your product or service with a beta group before launch to get feedback and/or testimonials? 21. What are the most effective marketing channels for businesses like yours? 22. How active are your customers and competitors on social media? 23. How will you onboard/welcome new customers? 24. Do rivals offer new customer or loyalty discounts? 25. What kind of customer support will you offer? Look at your rival’s offerings and decide whether you want to stick with the same or do better. 26. Are potential customers driven by price, product, or service? 27. Are your competitors or market impacted by seasonal trends ? 28. What opening hours and service level agreements (SLAs) will you advertise on your site?

Market research questions for a new product

Whether established, pre-launch or newly set up, you may need to ask specific market research questions for a new product launch. Whether you simply want to test the water with an idea or concept or go a little deeper to get clearer insights, these questions will help.

29. Is there a specific pain point your product will address? (if you have already identified an ideal customer, what kinds of things do they struggle with?) 30. Is there a demand for your product in the market? 31. Are there any opportunities to partner with other companies to get referrals for your product? 32. How do you plan to market and launch your product? 33. Will you release a minimum viable product (MVP) to market first?

If you release an MVP or offer a free trial to a select group of people, you’ll need to follow this up with a survey or specific questions to get feedback around usage, benefits, and improvements. A few examples of market research questions like these could include:

34. Which feature of the product did you use the most? 35. What improvements would you like to see? 36. How much would you be willing to pay for this product? 37. Was the product easy to use? 38. Was there anything you experienced during the trial that may deter you from using our product in the future? 39. How often did you use the product? 40. Would you recommend this product to someone else? If yes, why? If no, why?

Market research questions for your target audience

Once you’re sure there’s a viable market for your business, it’s time to drill down into that market – your audience and website demographics .

The six aspects of audience demographics: education level, hobbies or interests, financial situation, profession, age, and gender.

To begin, you’ll want to ask your respondents a few demographic questions to understand the basics. These might include:

41. How old are you? 42. Which gender do you identify as (if any)? 43. What’s your level of education? 44. What’s your profession? 45. What’s your household size? 46. What is your household income? 47. Which ethnic/cultural group do you identify with? 48. Where do you live? 49. Do you have any dependents? 50. What are your hobbies?

These questions provide a top-level understanding of your target audience . So, you can then utilize psychographic segmentation to dig a little deeper. These inquiries are designed to draw out your customers’ attitudes, lifestyles, likes, dislikes, motivations, and beliefs – particularly if they relate to your product or service.

The goal? To match your business with its ideal customer . Examples of these types of market research questions include:

51. Do you actively seek out new experiences or prefer to stick with what you know? 52. What do you most enjoy doing in your free time? 53. What was the last big-ticket item you purchased? 54. Have you ever boycotted a brand? If so, which brand – and why? 55. Which matters more when you make a purchase – price or quality? 56. Would you rather have more time or money? 57. How do you like to make purchases – do you prefer apps or web-based services? 58. How do you prefer to seek customer support? 59. What’s your main source of information?

For a more detailed deep dive into the above, see our guide on the what and why of market segmentation – and how to become a pro at it!

The definition of market segmentation is “the process of dividing a broad target market into smaller, more specifically defined groups.

Market research questions for your customers

So, you’ve established the market for your product, nailed your target audience, and now… you’ve got customers! Congrats – that’s a surefire sign that you’re on the right track.

But simply having new customers isn’t enough. To be truly successful, you’ll need to maintain engagement , foster loyalty to your product, and keep your customers coming back for more – in other words, build your brand.

Fortunately, this is where market research can help. By asking your existing customers a few questions, you can find out what you’re doing well, what you could be doing better, and – crucially – what your brand means to them. With this knowledge, you can do more of what your customers love, and identify key areas for improvement.

Here are some of the market research questions you can ask your customers to get useful feedback:

60. How did you first hear about our brand? 61. What made you choose us? 62. How long have you been a customer? 63. How would you rate your most recent experience with us? 64. Did we answer all your questions and requests for support? 65. Would you use us again? 66. How likely are you to recommend us to a friend? 67. What do you wish our product could do? 68. Do you believe our product is priced fairly? 69. What’s the maximum you’d pay for this kind of product? 70. What do you like most about our product?

Explore our complete guide to audience development for more tips, tricks, and strategies around this type of customer analysis.

Market research questions for competitor analysis

Death, taxes, and… competition .

Yep – no matter how original or innovative your idea is, pretty soon, there’ll be hordes of wannabes targeting the same space with similar products, and guess who they’ll be targetting? Your customers.

So how do you keep your friends close and your competition even closer?

Well, a SWOT analysis is a good place to start. It involves swotting up on your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s a heady mix of evaluating your business and the external factors that could affect it. So it’s naturally a great place to get your competitor analysis and benchmarking off the mark.

The definition of SWOT is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

You could also begin by asking yourself the following market research questions:

71. Who are our main competitors? 72. What are they doing that we’re not? 73. What’s our unique value proposition? 74. How much web traffic do our competitors receive? 75. Do they have a mobile app? If so, is it on iOS or android? How many monthly or daily active users do they have? 76. What’s their bounce rate ? 77. Which keywords and search terms do they target? 78. Which marketing channels do they prioritize, and how frequently do they advertise? 79. How do the backlink profiles of our competitors compare to our own? 80. Are our competitors seen as more authoritative in the space? 81. What kind of content do our competitors produce? 82. How do our competitors attract customers? 83. What are the unique selling points of our competitors? 84. What do our competitors charge? 85. What social media channels do our competitors use? 86. What kind of discounts and promotions do our competitors run? 87. Which sources and affiliates drive traffic to our competitors’ sites? 88. How does our business model compare to those of our rivals?

Remember, your customers are a potential goldmine of information about your competitors . Reach out to your client base with the following market research questions:

89. Who do you seek advice from when shopping for this kind of product? 90. Are you loyal to a particular brand in the space? 91. If so, what do you love most about this brand? 92. Is there anything that this brand could do better? 93. How did you find the last product you bought in the industry? 94. Is there anything you see our competitors doing that you’d like us to do? 95. What’s most likely to make you buy a product from another brand? 98. Can you tell us the top three things that made you choose us over a competitor? 99. What one thing matters most to you when deciding between brands that offer the same product?

You may also consider including some open-ended questions so you can hear from your loyal customers in their own words. Market research surveys are a great way to uncover and collect this type of data.

If you’re unsure where to start, learn about the seven types of competitor analysis frameworks – and how to use them to get your strategy off the ground.

Similarweb Competitor Analysis Frameworks

Whether you're B2B or B2C, get started with our free and easy to use template

How to answer these questions with Similarweb

Now that you’re armed with the 99 research questions you need to succeed in your market research endeavors, how do you answer them?

Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence is a great place to start. With these tools (which you can try for free) you can effortlessly do market sizing, gauge your audience’s loyalty and engagement rate , uncover mobile app intelligence for your market, improve your site’s retention rates, and more.

Similarweb platform shows the traffic and engagement metrics with its cutting-edge data.

In the same vein, Similarweb can also help you conduct that all-important competitor analysis . You can build a picture of which rival sites your customers frequent and form a data-driven understanding of why.

With Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence, you get an entire suite of market research and analysis tools at your fingertips. You can monitor your industry in real time via a personalized dashboard with on-demand access to industry, company, and consumer trends. With a broad view across web and mobile app intelligence, you can clearly understand the digital landscape that matters to you ( and your customers ) most.

Don’t just take our word for it, though. Check out what Similarweb can do for you today, and start tackling those big questions now!

Level up your market research

Get the data you need to adapt to market changes and industry trends.

What is market research?

Market research assesses the viability of a product or service by reaching out to its target market. It can include primary research – such as interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires – and secondary research , like articles and white papers.

What is the best way to ask market research questions to customers?

Because they’re quick to set up, relatively low-cost, and easy to use, market research surveys are a great tool to use if you want to ask a group of people market research questions.

What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative market research?

While qualitative data is typically mined through close observation with participants – such as in focus groups or face-to-face interviews – quantitative processes tend to involve larger-scale data grabbing. This could use forms, surveys, polls, or questionnaires to collect opinions en masse, often via emails or social media.

Qualitative data captures people’s thoughts and feelings – the prevailing sentiment around a product or service. Its quantitative counterpart, however, is more concerned with the cold, hard facts. That could be traffic metrics, engagement levels, bounce rates: anything that paints a data-driven picture!

by Liz March

Digital Research Specialist

Liz March has 15 years of experience in content creation. She enjoys the outdoors, F1, and reading, and is pursuing a BSc in Environmental Science.

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100+ Market Research Questions to Ask Your Customers

Expert Writer

Dwayne Charrington shares insights on creating effective surveys, improving navigation, and using A/B testing for smarter decisions. Additionally, he focuses on optimizing mobile experiences and champions privacy-by-design, ensuring users feel satisfied, secure, and valued.

Asking the right market research questions can help you understand your target customers and map their behavior and preferences.

But what does it actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample from a market research survey report for mapping brand awareness:

From this simple Q&A report, you can:

Visualize the proportions of demographic segments among your audience.
Measure how your brand is performing in comparison to others.
Pick the top preferred brand among the customers, explore what makes it stand out, and apply the same techniques to your brand.
See how your target market perceives brand advertisements and promotional efforts.

Now imagine if this type of data set is available for different aspects of your business – product development, marketing campaigns, optimization plans, and more.

That’s what market research does for you.

With the evolution of customer interaction points and constantly changing market trends, more and more businesses are fueling efforts to do in-depth market research, as evidenced by the steady increase in the revenue of the market research industry worldwide.

Market research can help you develop essential business strategies and maintain a competitive advantage over other brands to increase conversions and customer base.

And it all starts with asking the right questions to the right audience.

That’s why we have created this collection of 100+ market research questions to ask your target market. Each question aims to uncover a specific attribute about your customers. You can use a combination of these customer research survey questions, interviews, and othe marketing questionnaires for customers.

We have also added key tips to help you write your own effective market analysis questions if the needed.

100+ Great Market Research Questions to Ask Your Customers

The main challenge while designing and conducting research is – “What questions should I ask in my customer research survey?

That’s why we have a carefully curated list of market research questions to help you get started.

To Explore New Product Opportunities

What was your first reaction to the product?
Would you purchase this product if it were available today?
What feature would you like to see on the website/product?
Which feature do you think will help improve the product experience for you?
Of these four options, what’s the next thing you think we should build?
What’s the one feature we can add that would make our product indispensable for you?
Would implementing [this feature] increase the usability of the [product name]?
Please let us know how we can further improve this feature.
What problem would you like to solve with our product?

To Collect Feedback on Existing Products

Have you heard of [product name or category] before?
How would you feel if [product name] was no longer available?
How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use [Product/feature name?]
How often do you use [product name]?
How long have you been using [product name] for?
When was the last time you used [product name]?
Please rate the following product features according to their importance to you.
According to you, In which area is this product/service lacking the most? Specify below.
How does the product run after the update?
Rate our product based on the following aspects:
Have you faced any problems with the product? Specify below.
What feature did you expect but not find?
How are you planning to use [product or service]?
How satisfied are you with the product?

To Segment the Target Market

Please specify your age.

Please specify your gender.
Select your highest level of education.
What is your current occupation?
What is your monthly household income?
What is your current marital status?

What is the name of your company?
Where is your company’s headquarters located?
Please specify the number of employees that work in your company.
What is your job title?
In which location do you work?
Which activity do you prefer in your free time?
Which other physical activities do you take part in?
Where is your dream holiday destination?
Please rate the following as per their priority in your life – Family, work, and social life?
Are you happy with your current work-life balance?
Do you describe yourself as an optimist or a pessimist?
How often do you give to charity?
How do you travel to work?
How do you do your Holiday shopping?

To Conduct a Competition Analysis

Which product/service would you consider as an alternative to ours?
Rate our competitor based on the following:
Have you seen any website/product/app with a similar feature?
How would you compare our products to our competitors?
Why did you choose to use our [product] over other options?
Compared to our competitors, is our product quality better, worse, or about the same?
Which other options did you consider before choosing [product name]?
Please list the top three things that persuaded you to use us rather than a competitor.
According to you, which brand best fits each of the following traits.

To Gauge Brand Awareness

[Your brand name] Have you heard of the brand before?
How do you feel about this brand?
How did you hear about us?
Describe [brand name] in one sentence.
If yes, please tell us what you like the most about [your brand name]?
If no, please specify the reason.
How likely are you to purchase a product from this company again?
If yes, where have you seen or heard about our brand recently? (Select all that apply)
Do you currently use the product of this brand?
Have you purchased from this brand before?
Of all the brands offering similar products, which do you feel is the best brand?
Please specify what makes it the best brand for you in the category.
Which of the following products have you tried? (Select all that apply)
On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely would you recommend this brand to a friend or colleague?

To Map Customers’ Preferences

Have you ever boycotted a brand? If so, which brand and why?
What influences your purchase decision more – price or quality of the item?
How many hours do you spend on social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc.?
How do you do your monthly grocery shopping – online or through outlets?
How do you search for the products you want to buy?
Rate the factors that affect your buying decision for [product].
What persuaded you to purchase from us?
How likely are you to purchase a product from us again?
Please rate the following aspects of our product based on their importance to you.
What is the most important value our product offers to you?
Which of the following features do you use least?
How well does the product meet your needs?

To Map Customers’ Reservations

Is there anything preventing you from purchasing at this point?
What’s preventing you from starting a trial?
Do you have any questions before you complete your purchase?
What is the main reason you’re canceling your account?
What are your main reasons for leaving?
What was your biggest fear or concern about purchasing from us?
What is the problem that the product/service helped to solve for you?
What problems did you encounter while using our [product]?
How easy did we make it to solve your problem?
What is your greatest concern about [product]?
Have you started using other similar products? If yes, what made you choose that product?

To Perform Pricing Analysis

Would you purchase the product at [price]
According to you, what should be the ideal price of the [product name]?
Is our product pricing clear?
According to you, what is the ideal price range for the product?

To Collect Feedback on Website Copy

Please rate the website based on the following aspects:
How well does the website meet your needs?
Was the information easy to find?
Was the information clearly presented?
What other information should we provide on our website?
How can we make the site easier to use?
What could we do to make this site more useful?
Is there anything on this site that doesn’t work the way you expected it to?
How easy was it to find the information you were looking for?
Have feedback or an idea? Leave it here!
Help us make the product better. Please leave your feedback.

To Assess Website/Product Usability

Are you satisfied with the website layout?
What features do you think are missing on our website?
What features do you not like on our website?
Was our website navigation simple and user-friendly?
How much time did it take to find what you were looking for on our website?
Was it easy to find the products you are looking for?
Was the payment process convenient?

To Uncover Market Trends and Industry Insights

Did you purchase our product out of peer influence or individual preference?
How do you form your opinion about our product?
Do you follow trends of the product, or do you prefer to go with what you know?
Do discounts or incentives impact your decision-making process?

Market Research Survey Templates

One of the easiest ways to conduct market research is to use survey templates. They can help you save time and effort in creating your own market research surveys.

There are many types of market research survey templates available, depending on your objectives and target audience. Some of the most popular ones are:

Demographic Templates: These templates help you segment your customers based on their location. It can help you tailor your marketing strategies and offers to different customer groups.

Consumer Behavior Templates: These templates help you keep your pulse on your target market.

Industry Insights Templates: These templates help you get detailed information about your target industry and business.

Case Study:

Check out how AWA Digital increased revenue per customer for Avis by understanding the market and promoting add-on products.

Read Full Story Here

Breakdown of Different Market Research Questions

The answer choices in a market research survey question can significantly impact the quality and reliability of the response data you collect from the audience.

Some answer types help categorize the audience, while others measure their satisfaction or agreement.

So, before listing the customer research survey questions to ask your target audience, let’s understand their types:

Multiple Choice

A multiple-choice question type lets users select more than one answer from the given options. These questions are great for collecting multiple data sets using the same question and gauging people’s preferences, opinions, and suggestions .

Single Choice

In a single-choice question, the respondent can select only one answer from the given options. This question type is great for:

Segregating the users.
Prioritizing product updates based on user consensus.
Disqualifying irrelevant respondents by placing the question at the start of your customer research survey.

Matrix Match

A matrix matching grid can combine multiple market research questions into one to make the survey shorter . There is only one condition – the individual questions should have the same response anchors as shown in the image below:

The questions are arranged in rows while the answer options occupy the grid columns.

Ranking Question

A ranking question can help map customers’ preferences and set priorities for product development . This question type asks the respondent to arrange the given options in their decreasing/increasing preference.

Dichotomous

A dichotomous question poses a simple yes or no scenario to the respondent. These question types can help disqualify irrelevant people from the survey and categorize the users into two groups .

Likert Scale

Likert scale market research questions can help you measure the extent of respondents’ agreement/disagreement with the given statement . The answer options are arranged from positive to negative sentiments or vice-versa, with the neutral option in the middle.

There are two types of Likert scales: 5-point and 7-point .

Open-ended market questions let you explore the respondents’ minds without adding any restrictions to the answer . This question type is followed by a blank space for the respondent to add a free-text response.

You can add an open-ended question as a follow-up after the first question to explore the reasons for the customer’s previous answer. It also lets you collect more in-depth information about their issues, pain points, and delights.

Tools like Qualaroo offer tons of different question types for your surveys. Just pick the question and match its answer option type from the drop-down. To make it more effective, you can add branching to the survey.

How to Write Your Marketing Research Questions

It’s imperative to have a dedicated repository of market research questions for your surveys. But nothing’s better than crafting your questions.

For this, you need to sit with your team and discuss what information you require from the customers. It lets you analyze and document how much data you already have in your system, which can help set the market research scope.

We have listed some questions you need to ask yourself before asking market research questions to your potential customers or target market:

Audience Segmentation Questions

Audience segmentation questions help to size up your target market and provide a granular view of the audience . Not all customers are equal, and audience segmentation makes it possible to focus on each group individually to address their issues, fears, and expectations.

Here’s what you need to know before you start writing customer research survey questions to understand your audience:

Do we understand the demographics of the new market we are trying to target? (Age, location, ethnicity, education, company, annual income, etc.)
What are the locations that drive the most customers to our business? How are these locations different from others?
What are the interests, preferences, and fears of people from our new target market? Have we addressed these situations for our current customer base?
What are the psychographics attributes of the current customers and potential market? Are we targeting these in our campaigns?
What are the most popular engagement channels for our customers? Which channels drive the most traffic to our website?
Do we have enough data to perform value segmentation to separate high-value customers from low-value customers?
How often do these high-value customers make a purchase?

Product-Based Market Research Questions

Product-based market research questions can produce precious insights to channel into your product development and optimization strategies . You can see how changing technology affects customers’ behavior, what new features they want to see in your product, and how they perceive your products and services over the competition.

Start by gathering information about the following:

How does our product compare to the competition based on the features?
What products do our competitors offer?
What new features do customers want to see in our products? Do we have a product roadmap to deliver these updates?
What unique solutions do our products offer? What is the value proposition that reflects this offering?
Does our product incorporate the latest technological advancements?
What channels do we use to collect product feedback from our users?
What are customers’ preferences while choosing our products over competitors?

Pricing Market Research Questions

Pricing analysis can help you make your product more affordable to different customer segments while maintaining the desired gross margin. It also lets you restructure the pricing tiers to provide features depending on the customers’ requirements and company size .

Watch: (1/5) Supercharge Your Revenue With Data-Driven Pricing

Your sales and marketing team can help you hone in on the market research questions to ask your customers for running pricing analysis:

Do the customers ever complain about the difficulty in finding the pricing information?
What is the pricing structure of our competitors for the same products? What features do they include for a specific price?
How do customers find our pricing when compared to the competitors?
Do our products provide value for money to the customers? Does the sales pitch reflect this point?
Can we restructure the pricing, and how will it affect the revenue?
Are there any customer segments that have high-value potential but find the current pricing unaffordable? What are the plans for such customers?
Are we in a situation to offer a basic free plan to encourage customers to try our product before upgrading?
What promotions can we run to attract more customers?
Should we target customers based on income, company size, or type of solution to set our product prices?

Brand Reputation Market Research Questions

A brand reputation questionnaire for marketing research gives you information on how well your target market knows about your brand. You can uncover previously unidentified channels to increase brand awareness and find potential customers to promote your brand .

Start by gauging what customers are saying about your brand:

Which channels receive mentions of our brand? Are these posts positive or negative?
Do we have a system in place to analyze and monitor these reviews and posts?
What are the reviews of our brand on different sites? What is the overall impression of our brand in the market?
How are we currently addressing the negative reviews and complaints? What do our customers think about the handling process?
What is the impression of our brand in our target market?
What brand awareness campaigns are our competitors running?
Is our brand among the top choices of our target customers?

Advertisement & Campaign-Based Questions

These customer research survey questions let you assess the effectiveness of your current value propositions and campaigns . You can channel the customer insights into your advertising strategies to design targeted campaigns for different customer segments to reduce the overall acquisition cost and increase conversions.

Ask the following questions to collect information about the different marketing campaigns that are performing:

What are the best modes to run the advertisement campaigns to reach our target audience?
What is the estimated lifetime value of customers acquired from current campaigns? Is it higher or lower than the acquisition costs?
Which campaigns bring the most ROI and why?
How well do our advertisements present our value proposition to the customers? Do they address customers’ fears and expectations to attract them?
Are we running A/B tests to improve our online campaigns? How are we gathering data to build the A/B test hypotheses – surveys, heatmaps, eye tracking, etc.?
What advertisement campaigns do our competitors run?

7 Question Types to Use in Market Research Surveys

We mentioned earlier that market research questions provide important data for different operations like product development, marketing campaigns, sales pipeline and more.

But to what extent?

Let’s break it down to individual processes and understand how insights from customer research surveys can impact them:

To Know Your Target Market

Understanding your target audience is the fundamental aspect of market research, be it a new target market or existing customers. If you know what marketing research survey questions to ask your target market, you can identify different customer types’ unique traits and preferences.

The data can help you segment the users based on demographic, psychographic, geographic, and other attributes. These include their behavior, purchase preferences, age, location, habits, delights, frustrations, and more.

You can then create various customer personas and fuel your sales strategies to maximize ROI.

Case study – How Avis increased its revenue per customer

Avis, a leading car rental company, was looking to enhance customer experience by offering useful car add-ons like navigation systems, child seats, insurance, etc., to customers with their booking. So, it reached out to AWA Digital to find a way to promote these products and increase their sales.

AWA digital implemented customer research campaigns using targeted surveys to determine which add-ons were popular among the customers and why.

Using these insights, the team added an interstitial pop-up just before the booking page to show relevant add-ons to the customers.

This simple update dramatically increased the sales of add-on items and helped Avis generate more revenue per customer.

Read the entire case study here .

To Plan the Product Roadmap

A product roadmap is a visual representation of the current status of your product and planned updates over time. It shows a high-level summary of planned activities and priorities for different teams to take the product to the next level. Understanding different types of summary can help you create more effective and concise roadmaps that clearly communicate your vision and strategy.

Steve Jobs famously said – “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can’t start with the technology then try to figure out where to sell it.”

And market research helps to align your product strategies with the customer demand. Using targeted marketing survey questions, you can gauge what new features or functionality customers want to see in your products.

It helps to plan product development strategies based on customers’ consensus to prioritize the ideas that can have the most impact on customers and replace intuition-based approaches with data-backed decisions.

Customers’ demands change with market trends and technological advancements. That’s why your product map also needs to evolve constantly with time to reflect these changes in your product development cycle.

By designing targeted market research questions to ask the customers, you can uncover their expectations to deliver optimal product solutions.

That’s what our next case study demonstrates.

Case study – How customer research drives Twilio’s operations

Twilio, a cloud communications platform places customer discovery and research at the core of their product development strategies. It helps its teams to anticipate customer needs in a constantly changing market.

Lack of time and budget are the two biggest challenges that the company faces in its product development cycle. So, the team uses targeted market research questionnaires for a product to understand the challenges the customers face today and the ones they will face tomorrow.

With an abundance of ideas and no time to test them all, the feedback data from surveys is used to prioritize the hypotheses to run the tests. It makes the process more efficient and effective in producing positive results.

This data-backed approach is used across 18 different teams at Twilio to release new functionality every week and deliver optimal solutions to the clients.

Read the complete case study here .

To Reduce Acquisition Costs

Your customer base consists of multiple customer segments with different preferences and purchase potential. That’s why you cannot sell to everyone and need to find the right audience for your products.

If an acquired customer doesn’t bring in more revenue than it costs to acquire them, it will increase your acquisition costs over time.

We don’t want that, do we?

For example, let’s say you are targeting the entire market population using the same campaign. If your acquisition cost per customer is $300 and you acquire 20 customers from one campaign, you need to make more than $6000 to register profits.

The difficulty is you don’t know about these customers’ purchase behavior and capacity, so you cannot be sure if you will reach your goals. It adds unnecessary risks to your marketing ventures.

But, if you were targeting a specific segment with high income, regular shopping habits, or proven history of brand loyalty, You can obtain better results.

Now, the question is –

How will you separate these potential long-term customers from one-time buyers and high-value targets from other segments?

One way to do this is by building customer personas using the data from the market research survey questions. A buyer persona defines different attributes of a particular customer segment so you can hone in on the right audience to funnel your marketing efforts.

Here’s what a typical persona includes:

Target regions
Target demographic (age, marital status, gender)
Ideal psychographics (hobbies, social channels, activities they indulge in, goals)
Preferred interaction channels
Favorite brands and products
Total revenue till date
Estimated lifetime value

Once you have a clearer picture of different customers, you can find high-value prospects with the potential to be long-term customers looking for product solutions that your business offers.

You can then design the correct pitch using the market research data to bring in these customers and control the overall acquisition costs.

For example:

Plugin the demographic and psychographic data into CRM software like BIGContacts or Salesforce to convert high-value targets.
Use your CRM to create segmented lists of prospects based on estimated value, location, current status, and more. Then target these groups individually with personalized value propositions to increase conversion rates.
Identify their preferred mode of communication and technographic inclinations to find the right opportunities to pitch your product offering at the precise moment.

Even if acquiring and retaining such customers costs more, their overall revenue can balance the acquisition costs to deliver higher profits.

To Design Targeted Marketing Campaigns

By knowing how your target audience behaves and interacts with your business, you can find the exact opportunities to target them with personalized campaigns.

You can use mail campaigns to target website users with app-exclusive offers to encourage them to download your app and improve app adoption.
Add in-app broadcast messages about upcoming offers, exclusive membership benefits, and other incentives for new users to push them towards the end of the funnel.
Create multiple landing pages to target different customer types.
Design location-based ad campaigns with personalized value propositions based on audience preferences and problems at each location.

Case Study – How Canon’s campaigns generated 700% ROI

AWA digital was tasked by Canon, one of the biggest electronics companies worldwide, to assess and increase the demand for their products in different geographies. So, the AWA team conducted customer research using target market survey questions and discovered the following attributes about customers’ purchase behavior and reservations:

In some regions, people were reluctant to spend money on a Canon camera as they weren’t sure if Canon was an authoritative brand.
In other regions, authority was not as important to the users.

Using these insights, AWA optimized the ads campaigns’ messaging for different locations to include what consumers deemed important purchase factors.

The results?

With in-depth customer feedback, Canon generated an overall ROI of 700% in all regions using personalized campaigns to target the audience.

To Improve Brand Awareness

Whether you are into soft drinks or not, You probably would have heard of Coca-Cola’s 2011 Share-A-Coke ad. This single campaign put the Coke brand back on the map and reversed the 10-year steady decline in sales in the US.

Coke understood what motivates their customers and delivered a product offering that appealed to the masses to increase its brand equity- the excitement to get a Coca-Cola bottle with their name on it.

How did they do it?

In 2011, Coca-Cola rolled out its share-a-coke campaign in Australia. The company debranded the traditional Coke logo from the bottle and replaced it with the phrase “Share a Coke with” followed by a name.

The campaign used the list of the country’s most popular names (nicknames). The purpose was to make people go out and find the Coke bottle with their name on it and share it with their friends. The campaign was subsequently rolled out in 80 countries.

How did it impact Coca-Cola as a brand:

In Australia, it’s estimated that the campaign increased Coke’s share by 4% and increased consumption among young adults by 7%.
#ShareACoke became the top trending hashtag on Twitter globally and received over 1 billion impressions.
In the USA, the campaign increased Coke’s market share by over 2% and brought 11% more sales compared to the previous year.

It’s not limited to big brands only.

Understanding the customers and placing your product’s value offering along with their habits, lifestyle, and behavior can help you extend your brand’s reach.

Today, there are multiple touchpoints to connect with your customers and map their journey to uncover their issues, motivations, and fears to address in your campaigns.

Monitor brand mentions on social media and engage with the users to cultivate an online community and promote your brand.
Reach out to satisfied customers and turn them into your brand ambassadors.
Use targeted ad campaigns that connect people’s emotions and general behavior to imprint your brand’s image in their minds.

Quick Tips for Writing Awesome Market Research Survey Questions

With the inter-team research complete, you are ready to write your own market research questions to ask your target audience. Keep these general dos and don’ts in mind to ensure that the market survey fulfills the purpose without affecting the data quality or response rate.

Use Mutually Exclusive Response Options

If you are using response anchors with specific ranges like age group or income, check that the options do not overlap . Otherwise, it will produce an irregular data set.

Please specify your age:

In the above example, the respondent lying on either extremity of the given age ranges may get confused on which option to choose. For example, a 28-year-old respondent can choose from both second or third options.

Plus, two different respondents of the same age may select different options, which will skew your demographic data.

You can avoid this confusion by creating mutually exclusive groups as shown below:

Always Add A “Not Applicable” Or “Rather Not Say” Option

Since market research questions extract personal information, some respondents may not want to share such details with you. These include questions about age, income, gender, hobbies, social activities, and more.

Forcing such questions on the customers without allowing them to skip can irate them and lead to survey abandonment .

That’s why you can also use Qualaroo’s skip and branching logic to create smart surveys that only ask relevant questions to your respondents based on their previous answers.

Calculate the Required Sample Size

Sample size plays a vital role in your market research questions to determine the reliability of your response data.

If the response volume is low, the results may not be conclusive to point towards customers’ consensus. On the other hand, a larger sample size than required means a waste of the company’s valuable resources and time.

That’s why it’s important to calculate the required sample size to estimate the number of responses you need for your market research survey questions.

You can use any survey sample size calculator available online to get started. Just fill in the required details to get the required sample size.

For example, to reach a statistical significance of 99%, you need at least 3145 responses to your market research questionnaire.

Consider Adding Incentives

Studies show that incentivized customer research surveys or questionnaires fetch higher response rates than general surveys.

The incentives encourage customers to invest their time in a survey and get something in return.

It means creating a gated questionnaire for market research can help you reach the required sample size quickly . The incentive can be a simple discount code, free shipping coupon, free ebook, or other freebies.

However, there is a possibility that irrelevant respondents may fill out the survey randomly just to get to the offer, which may skew the results. You can use screening questions to filter out unsuitable respondents.

Avoid Double-Barreled Market Research Questions

A double-barreled question poses two questions into one. The problem with such questions is that the respondent may have opposing views about the two statements in the questions. It makes it harder for them to choose one answer from the options .

“Please rate the [product name] on a scale of 1-10 based on overall quality and price?”

Here, the respondent may find the product quality appreciable while thinking it to be overpriced at the same time. In such a case, they may skip the question or select any option randomly.

You can easily sidestep this hurdle by breaking your double-barreled market research question into two to make it less confusing for the respondents.

Importance of Market Research

We mentioned earlier that market research questions provide important data for different operations like product development, marketing campaigns, sales pipeline, and more.

Understanding your target audience is the fundamental aspect of market research, be it a new target market or existing customers. If you know what customer research survey questions to ask your target market, you can identify different customer types’ unique traits and preferences.

AWA Digital implemented research campaigns using targeted customer research surveys to determine which add-ons were popular among the customers and why.

Case study – How customer research drives Twilio’s operations

Twilio, a cloud communications platform, places customer discovery and research at the core of its product development strategies. It helps its teams to anticipate customer needs in a constantly changing market.

With an abundance of ideas and no time to test them all, the feedback data from customer research surveys is used to prioritize the hypotheses to run the tests. It makes the process more efficient and effective in producing positive results.

AWA Digital was tasked by Canon, one of the biggest electronics companies worldwide, to assess and increase the demand for their products in different geographies. So, the AWA team conducted a customer research survey using target market questions and discovered the following attributes about customers’ purchase behavior and reservations:

In other regions, authority was not so important to the users.

Whether you are into soft drinks or not, you probably would have heard of Coca-Cola’s 2011 Share-A-Coke ad. This single campaign put the Coke brand back on the map and reversed the 10-year steady decline in sales in the US.

Coke understood what motivates its customers and delivered a product offering that appealed to the masses to increase its brand equity- the excitement to get a Coca-Cola bottle with its name on it.

In Australia, it’s estimated that the campaign increased Coke’s share by 4% and consumption among young adults by 7%.

It’s not limited to big brands only.

Market Research: A Key to Your Business’ Success

Market research is a vital process for any business wanting to understand its customers and market better. By asking the right questions and using the right tools like Qualaroo, you can gain valuable insights that can help you improve your products or services, enhance your customer experiences, and grow your business.

In this blog, we have shared some of the best market research questions to ask your customers, as well as some of the best customer research survey templates to find market trends and industry insights. We hope that this blog has helped you learn more about market research and how to conduct it effectively.

About the author

Dwayne Charrington

Dwayne Charrington is an expert writer in customer feedback management, UX design, and user research. He helps businesses understand user intent and enhance the customer experience. Dwayne covers feedback management, lead generation, survey accessibility, and the impact of AI and VR on user interaction. He shares insights on creating effective surveys, improving navigation, and using A/B testing for smarter decisions. Additionally, he focuses on optimizing mobile experiences and champions privacy-by-design, ensuring users feel satisfied, secure, and valued.

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63 Insightful Market Research Questions to Ask in 2023

Better understand your target customer with these must-ask questions.

Understanding your target market, and how they respond to your product, is the key to successful promotional campaigns. Even if you feel like you understand your market perfectly, markets do change over time. Your customers’ opinions, needs, and wants will change along with current trends in society, politics, pop culture, and other influences. Asking the right market research questions can help you stay on top of your changing market.

The market research questions below will help you understand your market’s most pressing concerns , along with potential pain points.

Market research questions to understand customer demographics and psychology

Aside from basic demographic questions, like age, gender, income, and location, you can create a more specific customer profile. Ask these questions to get to know your customers better:

How do you primarily spend your time?
In which industry do you work?
What kind of hobbies do you regularly participate in?
What are your main interests?
If money or time were not an issue, what do you prefer to spend money on?
What draws you to one brand over another?
How do you choose between brands and products?
Who makes the primary purchasing decisions in your household?
How many people do you shop for on a regular basis?
What’s your preferred method of shopping? Why?
What makes you decide to avoid a brand in the future?
How do you feel about available products in [your product category]?
How often do you shop for [your product category]?
How much do you spend on [product category] on a monthly basis?
How do you use [product type] in your everyday life?

Market research questions for new products

If you’re gathering information to create or launch new products, these questions can provide valuable insight:

What do you look for when purchasing [new product or service]?
What is the most important feature for a [product type]?
How does [product type] make your life easier?
How often do you use [product type]?
Describe how you use [product type].
How much would you prefer to spend on a similar product or service?
What features would encourage you to pay more for a product or service?
Are there any features in [similar product or service] that you wouldn’t use?
Do you feel [competing products] are priced fairly?
What would convince you to try a new product or service in this category?

Market research questions for pain points

Understanding how your customers are responding to your current offerings, whether product, service, advertising, or customer service, can help you understand where your business can improve. Ask these questions to learn more:

When was the last time you purchased from [company]?
Describe your experience with your last purchase.
Where did we succeed in meeting your expectations?
Where did we fail in meeting your expectations?
What would make your experience with [product] better?
Are there any features you don’t use?
What would your ideal product or service include?
Have you ever talked to our customer service team?
Describe your reason for needing customer service assistance.
Describe your experience with our customer service team.
Was your issue resolved?
How quickly was your issue resolved?
Were you satisfied with the outcome?
What would have made the experience better?
What’s the most difficult part of using our products or services?
Do you use our website? How do you use it?
Have you experienced any problems contacting us for assistance? What were they?
Have you experienced any problems on our website? What were they?

Market research questions for pricing and placement

Understanding how your product pricing and placement compare to those of your competitors can be helpful. Use these questions to refine your pricing and promotional strategies:

How much do you currently pay for [product type]?
Do you think our product is priced fairly?
Have you found [product or service] for less? Did you purchase it? Why or why not?
What is a reasonable price range for [product or service]?
What is the ideal price for [product or service]?
Is [price point] too low or too high for a similar product/service?
Have you seen our products in stores before?
Where have you seen our products mentioned/placed/advertised?
Where would you like to see our products or services mentioned/placed/advertised?

Market research questions for advertising and brand awareness

Advertising, marketing, and branding create an image in your customers’ minds. While brand awareness is its own market research niche, these questions will help you understand how customers perceive your brand and advertising campaigns:

Are you familiar with our brand?
How did you find our brand/company?
Have you ever seen any reviews of our brand/product/company? How did they influence your purchase?
Have you ever seen advertisements for our brand/product/company? How did they influence your opinion of us?
Who do you think our target customer is?
When you think of our brand, how do you feel?
Does our advertising and branding accurately reflect your experience with our company?
What should potential customers know about our products and services?
What do you think our brand/company stands for?
Have you ever followed any of our social media channels? Which ones? How do you feel about our social media presence?

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68 market research questions to ask (and how to ask them)

Example market research questions, market research questions to ask customers, market research questions for product development, market research questions for brand tracking, pricing survey questions for market research, how to write your own market research questions.

No two market research projects are alike, but happily there are some tried-and-tested questions you can use for inspiration to get the consumer insights you’re looking for.

It’s all about asking questions that are most relevant to the goals of your research. Every so often the best questions are actually quite straightforward, like asking consumers where they do their grocery shopping.

If you’re creating a customer profile, you’ll ask different questions than when you’re running creative testing with your target audience, or getting insights on key consumer trends in your market.

The right market research questions are the ones that will lead you to actionable insights, and give you a competitive advantage in your target market.

Let’s kick this off and get straight into some questions, shall we?

Where do we even begin with this?! There are so many types of research and we’ll get into which questions work for each below, but here are some classic example market research questions to get you started.

These particular questions are good for surveys that you might run when you’re running some essential consumer profiling research.

Which of these products have you purchased in the last 3 months?
Which of the following types of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY< do you buy at least once a month?
Approximately, how much would you say you spend on >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY< per month?
What is stopping you from buying more of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
When was the last time you tried a new >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
Please rank the following on how important or unimportant they are when deciding which >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to buy?
Which of these brands are you aware of?
Which of these brands have you purchased from in the last 3 months?
How do you prefer to shop for >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
Why do you prefer to shop online?
Why do you prefer to shop in-store?
Thinking about the following, how often do you use/listen/watch each of these media?
Where do you go to keep up to date with the news?
Which social media platforms do you use daily?
What mobile phone do you currently own?

Surely you want to talk to your current customers to understand why they buy from you and what they think about your products?

Correct! But your consumer research should definitely not end with current customers!

Here’s why you should think about broadening your research to include other groups and different market research methods :

Current customers: This is a must! Running research to your current customers will help you understand how you can make your product or service better. These are the people who’ve spent their hard-earned cash on your products so they have a unique perspective on what kind of value you offer. In addition, understanding why your existing customer base chose your brand over others can help you create messaging that resonates with people who are still on the fence.
Previous customers: People who used to buy your products but don’t anymore can give you valuable insight into areas you might need to improve. Perhaps your brand perception has shifted making some customers buy elsewhere, or maybe your competitors offer customers better value for money than you currently do. These are the kinds of areas you can learn about by running research to previous customers.
Non-customers: You should also ask people who haven’t bought your products why they haven’t. That way you’ll learn what you need to improve to bring new customers in. You should ideally ask the same kinds of questions, so that you can learn about what product features you need to work on but also things like the messaging you should be putting out there to win people over.

Here are some questions that are perfect for competitive market analysis research. Some of these questions might sound similar to some from our previous section on consumer profiling—that’s because there’s often some crossover between these types of research. Consumer profiling often refers to a more general type of research that covers similar ground to market analysis. If you’re wondering how to calculate market size , questions like these would be a great starting point.

How often do you usually purchase >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
Why do you buy >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
What types of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY< do you buy?
How often do you buy the following types of >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
Where do you buy your >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
Where do you find out about >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
Which of these brands have your purchased in the last 12 months?
How would you feel if you could no longer buy >INSERT YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE CATEGORY<?
How important or unimportant do you find the following topics? (e.g. sustainability, diversity and inclusion, ethical supply chain)
What could be improved about the products you currently use?

Group of people taking part in market research

By involving consumers in the product development process, you can make sure that your products are designed to meet—and ideally exceed—their needs.

Product market research can be done at several points in the product development process, by asking potential customers in your target market questions about existing products (yours or competitors’), prototypes, or just your own early-stage product ideas.

You can dive into the customer experience, specific product features or simply find out if the product quality matches the value proposition you’re putting out there.

Sometimes you even get a surprising answer to the question: how does our product or service help people?

You might learn from the survey responses that customers are using your product in a different way than you intended, opening you up to new target markets and different product types in the future.

Asking these questions also allows you to get feedback on your designs, so that you can make necessary changes before the product is released. Here’s some inspiration for when you’re conducting product market research.

There are different types of new product development research. A key type is Jobs to be done research. This research digs into the practical reasons people buy products—the jobs they need to get done with a specific product. You use these insights to help you create products that will genuinely help consumers, and that they’ll ultimately want to buy.

How many times have you carried out [INSERT ACTIVITY] in the last 12 months?
How much time would you typically spend on this [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
How important or unimportant is carrying out this [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
How satisfied or unsatisfied do you feel when carrying out this [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
What is the best thing about carrying out [INSERT ACTIVITY]?
How does carrying out [INSERT ACTIVITY] make you feel? Please select all that apply
What particular problems or challenges do you run into while carrying out [INSERT ACTIVITY]?

When you’re cooking up your brand’s next product, you’ll want to go through a concept testing phase. This is where you ask consumers what they think about your idea and find out whether it’s likely to be a success. Here are some of the questions you could ask in your concept testing research.

To what extent do you like or dislike this idea/product? [ATTACH IMAGE]
What do you like about this idea/product?
What do you dislike about this idea/product?
Is easy to use
Sounds tasty
Is good quality
Is Innovative
Is different from others
Purchase this product
Replace the product I currently own with this
What other products this idea/product reminds you of? Please provide as much detail as possible including the product name.
What feature(s), if any, do you feel are missing from this product?
How would you improve this idea/product? Be as descriptive as possible!
What issues do you solve through the use of this product?
When can you see yourself using this product? Please select all that apply.
The price for this product is $25.00 per item. How likely or unlikely would you be to buy this product at this price?

Get inspired with NPD survey templates

Our in-house research experts have created New Product Development (NPD) survey templates to give you the perfect starting point for your product research!

Does the perspective of new customers change over time? How do you compare to other brands, and how do you become the preferred brand in your market and increase that market share?

Brand perception and brand awareness are super important metrics to track. These insights can be used to improve customer experience and satisfaction on a higher level than just product: the relationship you have with your customers.

This research can also help you understand how to reach the holy grail of branding: turning loyal customers into brand ambassadors.

You should also remember to ask marketing research questions about your brand to existing and potential customers.

Existing customers might have a different view after having interacted with your team and products, and you can use that to manage the expectations of your target customers down the line. And potential customers can help you understand what’s holding them back from joining your customer base.

Top tip: it’s completely fine (and super beneficial!) to run brand tracking into your competitors’ brands as well as your own. Replicating research for different brands will give you a tailored benchmark for your category and position.

Here are some key questions to ask in your brand tracking research.

Which of the following, if any, have you purchased in the past 12 months?
Thinking about >INSERT YOUR CATEGORY<, what brands, if any, are you aware of? Please type in all that you can think of.
Which of these brands of facial wipes, if any, are you aware of?
Which of these facial wipe brands, if any, have you ever purchased?
Which of these facial wipe brands, if any, would you consider purchasing in the next 6 months?
e.g. Innovative
Easy to use
Traditional
We’d now like to ask you some specific questions about >INSERT YOUR BRAND<.
When did you last use >INSERT YOUR BRAND<?
What do you like most about >INSERT YOUR BRAND<?
What do you like least about >INSERT YOUR BRAND<?
How likely would you be to recommend >INSERT YOUR BRAND< to a friend, family or colleague?
Why did you give that score? Include as much detail as possible
In newspapers/magazines
On Instagram
On Facebook
On the radio
Through friends/family/colleagues
When did you last use >INSERT MAIN COMPETITOR BRAND<?
How likely would you be to recommend >INSERT MAIN COMPETITOR BRAND< to a friend, family or colleague?

Kick off your brand tracking with templates

Track your brand to spot—and act on!—how your brand’s perception and awareness affects how people buy. Our survey templates give you the ideal starting point!

When it comes to pricing your product, there’s no need to wing it—a pricing survey can give you the insights you need to arrive at the perfect price point.

By asking customers questions about their willingness to pay for your product, you can get a realistic sense of what price point will be most attractive to them and, not unimportant, why.

Top tip: good pricing research can be tough to get right. Asking how much people would theoretically be willing to pay for a product is very different from them actually choosing it in a shop, on a shelf next to competitors’ products, and with a whole load of other economic context that you can’t possibly test for. Price testing is useful, but should sometimes be taken with a pinch of salt.

Here are some questions you could use in your pricing research.

Which of the following product categories have you bought in the last 12 months?
How often do you currently purchase >INSERT YOUR CATEGORY<?
At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it? (Too expensive)
At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be starting to get expensive, so that it is not out of the question, but you have to give some thought to buying it? (e.g. Expensive)
At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be a bargain—a great buy for the money? (e.g. cheap)
At what price would you consider this >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY< to be priced so low that you would feel the quality couldn’t be very good? (Too cheap)
How much do you currently pay for >INSERT PRODUCT CATEGORY<? Please type in below
Thinking about this product, please rank the following aspects based on how much value they add, where 1 = adds the most value 10 = adds the least value.
Thinking about the product category as a whole, please rank the following brands in order of value, where 1 is the most expensive and 10 is the least.

Formulating market research questions can be tricky. On the one hand, you want to be specific enough that you can get tangible, useful answers. But on the other hand, you don’t want to ask questions that are so difficult or unclear that respondents will get frustrated and give up halfway through.

Think about what answers you need and what actions you are hoping to take based on those answers.

We’ll help you get started with a list of steps to take when formulating your own market research questions, and putting them together in a survey that makes sense.

1. Define your research goals and link them to actions you can take

Before you can write great market research questions, you need to know what you want to learn from your research.

What are your goals? What do you want to find out? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can start brainstorming questions that will help you achieve them.

2. Know your target market and the language they use

Who are you conducting market research for? It’s important to know your audience before you start writing questions, as this will help you determine the best way to phrase them.

For example, if you’re conducting market research for a new product aimed at teenagers, you’ll want to use different language than if you were conducting research for a new financial planning service aimed at retirees.

3. Keep it simple, and break things into smaller pieces

Don’t make your questions too complicated. Stick to simple, straightforward questions that can be easily understood by your target audience.

The more complex your questions are, the more likely it is that respondents will get confused and provide inaccurate answers.

If you feel a question is too difficult, see if you can break it up into smaller pieces and add follow-up questions on top.

And don’t ever load two questions into one! This falls into Consumer Research 101, but it’s amazing how often it happens. Instead of ‘What’s your favorite chocolate bar, and why?’ ask two questions: ‘What’s your favorite chocolate bar?’ and ‘Why is this your favorite chocolate bar?’

4. Be super specific

Make sure your questions are specific enough to get the information you need. Vague questions will only lead to vague answers.

For example, instead of asking ‘What do you think of this product?’, ask ‘What did you think of the taste of this product?’ or ‘What did you think of the packaging of this product?’.

5. Avoid leading questions

Leading questions are those that suggest a particular answer or course of action. For example, instead of asking ‘Do you like our new product?’, which suggests that the respondent should like the product, try asking ‘What are your thoughts on this product?

This question is neutral and allows the respondent to answer freely without feeling pressured in any particular direction. It’s also brand-neutral: people answering this question will have no idea who’s asking, and their opinion won’t be biased as a result.

6. Make sure your question is clear

It’s important that your question is clear and concise so that respondents understand exactly what they’re being asked. If there is any ambiguity in your question, respondents may interpret it in different ways and provide inaccurate answers.

Always test your questions on a few people before sending them to a larger group to make sure they understand what they’re being asked.

7. Avoid loaded words

Loaded words are those with positive or negative connotations that could influence the way respondents answer the question. For example, instead of asking ‘Do you love this product?’, which has a positive connotation, try asking ‘What are your thoughts on this product?’

This question is neutral and allows the respondent to answer freely without feeling pressured in any particular direction

8. Make sure the question is answerable

Before you include a question in your market research survey, make sure it’s actually answerable. There’s no point in asking a question if there’s no way for respondents to answer it properly. If a question isn’t answerable, either revise the question or remove it from your survey altogether.

9. Use an appropriate question type

When designing your market research survey, be sure to use an appropriate question type for each question you include. Using the wrong question type can lead to inaccurate or unusable results, so it’s important to choose wisely. Some common question types used in market research surveys include multiple choice, rating scale, and open-ended questions.

10. Pay attention to question order

The order of the questions in your survey can also impact the results you get from your research. In general, it’s best to start with more general questions and then move on to more specific ones later on in the survey. This will help ensure that respondents are properly warmed up and able to provide detailed answers by the time they reach the end of the survey.

Make smart decisions with the reliable insights

To make sure you make smart decisions that have real impact on your business, get consumer insights you can rely on. Here’s our rundown of the top market research tools.

Survey questions for market research are designed to collect information about a target market or audience. They can be used to gather data about consumer preferences, opinions, and behavior. Some common types of market research survey questions include demographic questions, behavioral questions and attitudinal questions.

There are many different types of market research questions that companies can use to gather information about consumer preferences and buying habits. They can be divided into different categories, like a competitive analysis, customer satisfaction or market trends, after which you can make them more specific and turn them into survey questions. These are some of the things your research questions can help you answer: – What is the target market for our product? – Who is our competition? – What do consumers think of our product? – How often do consumers purchase our product? – What is the typical customer profile for our product? – What motivates consumers to purchase our product?

When conducting market research, surveys are an invaluable tool for gathering insights about your target audience. But how do you write a market research questionnaire that will get you the information you need? First, determine the purpose of your survey and who your target respondents are. This will help you to write questions that are relevant and targeted. Next, craft clear and concise questions that can be easily understood. Be sure to avoid ambiguity, leading questions and loaded language. Finally, pilot your survey with a small group of people to make sure that it is effective. With these tips in mind, you can write a market research survey that will help you to gather the crucial insights you need.

Elliot Barnard

Customer Research Lead

Elliot joined Attest in 2019 and has dedicated his career to working with brands carrying out market research. At Attest Elliot takes a leading role in the Customer Research Team, to support customers as they uncover insights and new areas for growth.

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To Explore New Product Opportunities

To Collect Feedback on Existing Products

To Segment the Target Market

To Conduct a Competition Analysis

To Gauge Brand Awareness

To Map Customers’ Preferences

To Map Customers’ Reservations

To Perform Pricing Analysis

To Collect Feedback on Website Copy

To Assess Website/Product Usability

To Uncover Market Trends and Industry Insights

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To Know Your Target Market

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To Design Targeted Marketing Campaigns

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68 market research questions to ask (and how to ask them)

1. Define your research goals and link them to actions you can take